Towing Advice

[Martin_5128108]

My current rig is a 1999 T reg Ford Galaxy 2.3 VTEC and a 17' abbey Enterprise SL Currently I have no stabiliser fitted and was comming back from our first outing across the Pennines when the car following us noted that when the wind blew realy hard the whole van lifted off the ground, we where only doing about 45 mph at the time. Would a stabiliser help on lengthways movement, or would I be wasting my money on one?

Also I am disabled so have ltd income, what would people recommend for stabilisers, I currently have one of the Old type plastic seats installed for a bolt on stabiliser on the caravan side of the ri?

Thanks in advance

 

[Lutz]

If the wind was strong enough to lift the caravan bodily off the ground, it must have been really stiff and, to be honest, 45mph is too fast under those conditions. If necessary, one should stop and wait until the gusts have subsided (hence the closure of some bridges to caravan traffic under adverse weather conditions).

If that was the only problem that you noticed, i.e. the caravan did not snake from side to side, a stabiliser of any sort is not going to prevent such an occurence.

 

[PC_5119929]

We've towed for quite a few years and have never seen a van off the ground in the wind. The odd wheel clearing the ground on a bump and have witnessed one wheel lifting as caravan turned over.

I would never tow without a stabiliser, but as Lutz says what you describe would not be stopped by one.

If the van was truly lifting off the ground I would have thought the car would have been very hard to control and you would have been forced to reduce your speed.

A lifting caravan would surely have adverse effects on the cars steering and handling forcing you to take remedial action and slow down.

 

[Steve L]

HI Martin.

I agree with the others, If the van did come comletely off the ground then you would of certainly felt it and a stabiliser would not stop that large event.

I tow a large twin axle van behind a laguna estate and use a snakemaster stabiliser. All mine does for us is to reduce the yawing you get when going over level crossings or simlarbumpy terrain.

Loading the van correctly has a far more posative affect on the stability and should be attended to first before fitting stabilisers.

Steve L

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Possibly the driver of the car behind needed to vistit Vision Express.

I find them very good

 

[Royston]

Hi Martin,

I use the A66 over the pennines quite a lot,from Scots corner to the lakes, at the top the wind guests can be quite strong, But I have never ever experienced the van becoming airborne, through gusty winds.Had your caravan become airborne you would certainly have felt it through the sudden movement of the the overrun assy thats connected to your towball. On a trip to Thirsk towing I missed the A167 turn off and took the B1448 coming onto the 30mph sign a very high short speed bump which resulted in the van becoming slightly airborne resulting in quite a lot of internal spillage within the van.

Normally I drive over speed bumps at zero miles per hour.

Since then i have made sure that I do not use that B road again.

Royston